Friday, Jan. 17, 2003 | 4:32 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION: Jan. 18, 2003
When Clare Schmutz was a Clark County Health District junior sanitarian in the 1960s, he traveled a route from West Las Vegas to Searchlight to Laughlin, inspecting restaurants and swimming pools.
On many occasions it bothered him that the only sinks in which restaurant employees could wash their hands was in the bathrooms.
"Today things are more refined -- better equipment and better food preparation controls -- but what we've always known is that most health problems are related to dirty hands," said Schmutz, 72, longtime Health District environmental health director.
"I just thought it would be much better if they had hand sinks in kitchens."
Now all of Clark County's 13,000-plus food establishments have hand sinks -- a measure instituted under Schmutz's watch.
Today marks Schmutz's 43rd anniversary with the Health District. At the end of the month Schmutz, the department's longest-serving employee, will retire, ending a career in environmental health that has seen changes in everything from licensing procedures to defenses against bioterrorism.
"We will fill the position, but we will never fully replace the institutional memory that we are losing with Clare's retirement," county Chief Health Officer Donald Kwalick said. "He certainly has been one of our most dedicated employees. His work is respected internationally."
Until a new environmental health director is named, three supervisors will run the department, Kwalick said.
Schmutz's management philosophy was to give licensees enough rope to hang themselves. He relied heavily on voluntary cooperation, and often it worked.
"I always felt the educational approach was the most practical," he said. "We could have shut down places and fined them, but I found that most places had health violations because the operators didn't understand the rules.
"If the public's health was at risk, no question we shut them down. If not, we found that teaching good practices resolved the problems without forcing restaurant owners to close their doors for any period of time."
When Schmutz began working at the district, there were just 500 restaurants in the Las Vegas Valley and about 100 publicly used pools -- and the four sanitarians inspected both. Today, 36 sanitarians inspect the county's restaurants on a monthly basis and seven inspectors test more than 4,500 pools.
In addition, the district, under Schmutz's tenure, has instituted food handler courses, on-site classes at restaurants that are downgraded from A to C grade and self-inspection programs to keep things clean between inspector visits.
"I don't know that we are ever going to be satisfied that we have done enough to ensure the public's safety," Schmutz said. "We have some very good people working in environmental health, but they have a lot of area to cover."
And the issues they face can have deadly consequences. For example, an E. coli contamination in the early 1990s resulted in deaths and illness nationwide after fast-food restaurants served undercooked beef.
"Cooking hamburger meat well was not something new," Schmutz said. "But when people got ill, we were able to get that message out through the TV news and newspapers. That incident brought the issue to a head."
A Utah native, Schmutz graduated from Utah State University in Logan with a bachelor of science degree in sanitary science in 1959. He had served in the Navy during the Korean War and worked two years as a sanitarian for the Logan City Health Department before settling in Las Vegas in 1960.
"I came here because it was just too cold in Utah," Schmutz said. "Like so many other people I thought I'd work here a few years then move on to bigger and better things. But like so many people I just fell in love with Las Vegas.
"And I fell in love with my job. My wife, Georgia, has told me many times that I was married more to my job than I was to her."
Schmutz started at the old Clark County Health Department at Second Street and Stewart Avenue -- one of just 13 employees.
In 1963 Schmutz was promoted to sanitarian supervisor and in 1966 he became a chief supervisor. In 1992 Schmutz became environmental health manager and a year later he was promoted to director of environmental health services.
He lists among his major accomplishments improving procedures for septic tank permits, overseeing the installation of the dump at Apex and upgrades to the food service regulations manual, especially sweeping sanitation changes in the 1996 edition that now is in the process of being rewritten.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Schmutz said the field of environmental health has broadened considerably.
"It was a real eye-opener," Schmutz said. "There will be tremendous changes in how we address environmental health because we know now how vulnerable we are and how Las Vegas could be a target."
Schmutz said a state-run laboratory under construction on the grounds of the Health District on Shadow Lane will improve issues such as anthrax testing.
"When we had the anthrax scare, we had to send more than 100 samples to Reno to be tested," Schmutz said. "With the new laboratory we will be able to do our own testing and learn things sooner."
Schmutz has served on numerous state and national boards, including the state Food and Drug Administration in 1967, the state Board of Registration for Public Health Sanitation (1971-78 and 1989-2001) and the National Sanitation Foundation Council of Public Health Consultants (1978-83).
He was chairman of the National Environmental Health Association general meeting in 1970 and is a past president of the Nevada Environmental Health Association.
Schmutz was a member of the Nevada Division of Environmental Health Groundwater Technical Task Force and the Tire Recycling Task Force and is a member of the Underwriters Laboratory Council of Public Health and Environmental Consultants. He says he will continue to serve on the UL board after retirement.
"I am not one to sit around and watch TV or do a lot of fishing," Schmutz said. "I plan to continue to keep busy in the field of environmental health. I hope to do some consulting work."
Last year Schmutz was recognized by the Nevada Board of Registration of Environmental Health Specialists for distinguished and dedicated service.
His other major awards include the 1989 National Sanitation Foundation International Environmental Leadership Award, the 1995 Nevada Public Health Association Outstanding Professional in Environmental Health Award and the 1998 Samuel J. Crumbine National Award for excellence in food protection.
Asked how he wants to be remembered for his work, Schmutz said, "I would hope people would say that I put in a lot of good years and was fair and honest.
"I enjoyed working with and protecting the public. Hopefully I made Las Vegas a better place to live and a better place for tourists to visit."
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